Still sluggish: US only grew 1.2% to start 2017

America got a slow start to 2017

The US economy only grew 1.2% at an annual pace during the first three months of the year, according to a new estimate by the Commerce Department.

That's a hair better than the initial estimate of 0.7% published a month ago, which had been the worst quarter of growth in 3 years.

"This was a solid upward revision...but it still definitely was a sluggish start to the year," says Scott Anderson, chief economist at Bank of the West.

Still, Friday's figure doesn't change the narrative: the US economy is growing slowly, albeit steadily. It's been growing at this rate since the Great Recession ended in June 2009, making it the third longest expansion in history.